French (le fran�ais, pronounced [l? f??~s?] or [l? f??

~se] (About this soundlisten)

or la langue fran�aise [la l?~g f??~s??z]) is a Romance language of the Indo-
European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all
Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and
more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues
d'o�l�languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium,
which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by
native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the
(Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to
France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages,
most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to
as Francophone in both English and French.

French is an official language in 29 countries across multiple different

continents,[4] most of which are members of the Organisation internationale de la
Francophonie (OIF), the community of 84 countries which share the official use or
teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the
number of speakers) in France, Canadian provinces of Quebec, Ontario and New
Brunswick as well as other Francophone regions, Belgium (Wallonia and the Brussels-
Capital Region), western Switzerland (cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Geneva, Jura,
Neuch�tel, Vaud, Valais), Monaco, parts of the United States (Louisiana, Maine, New
Hampshire, and Vermont), partly in Luxembourg and in northern Italy (region of
Aosta Valley), and by various communities elsewhere.[5]

In 2015, approximately 40% of the francophone population (including L2 and partial

speakers) lived in Europe, 35% in sub-Saharan Africa, 15% in North Africa and the
Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania.[6] French is the
fourth most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union,[7] Of Europeans who
speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as
a second language.[8] French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU.
[9] French is also the 18th most natively spoken language in the world, 6th most
spoken language by total number of speakers and the second most studied language
worldwide (with about 120 million current learners).[10] As a result of French and
Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new
territories in the Americas, Africa and Asia. Most second-language speakers reside
in Francophone Africa, in particular Gabon, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Mauritius,
Senegal and Ivory Coast.[11]

French is estimated to have about 76 million native speakers and about 235 million
daily, fluent speakers[12][1][13] and another 77 to 110 million secondary speakers
who speak it as a second language to varying degrees of proficiency, mainly in
Africa.[14] According to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF),
approximately 300 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language",[15]
without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses.[2]
According to a demographic projection led by the Universit� Laval and the R�seau
D�mographie de l'Agence universitaire de la francophonie, the total number of
French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by
2050.[16] OIates